Trump’s farewell trip includes a stop at the border wall in Alamo, Texas on Tuesday

Updated at 15:45 with border reaction.

WASHINGTON – Eight days before reluctantly stepping down, President Donald Trump will visit the southern Texas border on Tuesday to proclaim the partial construction of the huge wall he promised to deliver – far more than critics wanted, let alone than he wanted, and nothing he financed for Mexico.

At the last count, about 452 miles were built. About 12 miles of this is along segments of the border without any barriers before. The rest replaces the shorter and less resistant barrier.

The bill has so far cost $ 15 billion, just $ 4.5 billion of what Congress has provided. Trump diverted the rest of the military budget when lawmakers refused full funding.

It is not quite the “big, beautiful wall” he promised during the 2016 campaign when he suggested that almost the entire 1,954-mile border would be walled. When he leaves office, he will be about 40% surrounded. President-elect Joe Biden has promised to halt construction, although he will not dismantle whatever the Trump administration leaves behind.

Trump has not been seen in public since Wednesday morning, when he stoked the passions of a crowd that would soon be rebelling on Capitol Hill.

With more and more requests for resignation or impeachment, he will visit Texas unaccompanied by allies who are generally eager to receive him on arrival. Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick will be in Austin on Tuesday for the opening day of the 2021 legislature.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said on Sunday that Trump will visit Alamo, Texas, east of McAllen and near the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, “to mark the completion of more than 400 miles of border wall – a promise made, a promise kept – and your administration’s efforts to reform our broken immigration system.

Although incomplete, and more like a high fence than the wall that Trump imagined – early on, he bowed to the council of agents on the ground that it is better to see what’s on the other side – is undoubtedly more difficult to defeat than what was there before.

The objective of the project is to delay migrants and smugglers long enough for the arrival of the Border Patrol. For the system to function as intended, surveillance and the workforce will need to be intensified, and it is unclear how much Biden’s appetite and Democratic-controlled Congress will have. Even critics of the wall admit that tearing it down or abandoning it would send the wrong signal to smugglers and uninvited migrants.

Democrats and many Republicans called the wall a mess – an unnecessarily expensive monument to Trump’s desire to signal that the United States is increasing security and a scar in an environmentally sensitive landscape.

The public and Mexican leaders considered the wall an affront and never gave in to their refusal to pay for a project they opposed.

Trump and his supporters saw the wall both as an effective deterrent to smuggling and illegal border crossing, and as a powerful symbol that unwanted migrants are not welcome.

Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, fought on the Appropriations Committee to block budgetary maneuvers that have undermined billions from the Pentagon for his favorite project. The wall was one of many reasons why he was pleased that Biden won the election.

“The fact that the president is traveling to the southern border to see his failed attempt to build a border wall shows exactly where his priorities are,” he said. he tweeted.

Hidalgo County, which includes Alamo, has increased pandemic-related restrictions in recent days to ease the crowding in hospitals. Hospitalizations have quadrupled in the past two months in the lower valley.

The project used 681,000 tonnes of steel and nearly a billion cubic meters of concrete, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security, for the dike wall along the Rio Grande beads and 30 foot steel bollards that are more difficult to climb or cut than the older fence.

While Biden will not dismantle Trump’s physical legacy, he will lift restrictions on refugee admissions and a number of other immigration policies put in place through executive order.

Robert Peña, director of the El Paso Republican Alliance, praised Trump’s trip to the Alamo and hopes that support for the outgoing president will remain long after his term ends on January 20.

“Half the country voted for him,” said Peña, adding that the visit should remind Biden “not to open the floodgates. We need to keep the country safe. “

Southern Texas is a noteworthy choice for this visit.

The Rio Grande Valley remains the busiest sector of the United States’ Border Patrol.

Trump, who kept Texas in the Republican Party column, made up for Biden’s overwhelming advantage with Latino voters in urban areas by overcoming previous Republican Party nominees along the border.

Community organizers were mounting an anti-Trump campaign, including a petition urging the mayors of Alamo and McAllen and the Hidalgo county sheriff to demand that the White House cancel the visit.

Pro-Trump supporters were organizing on Sunday to greet the president at the airport and at the border wall.

“Everyone is excited to have him,” said Mayra Flores, organizer of the Hidalgo County Republican Party, behind caravans with flags known as “Trump trains.” “You saw the tremendous support he received from South Texas, although it surprised some.

Trump insisted that work continue during the pandemic and since its defeat. Biden’s aides and allies in Congress have been trying to figure out what contracts can be canceled and how much it will cost taxpayers in penalties.

Five days before the election, acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf visited McAllen to mark the 400-mile completion, predicting he would reach 450 miles on New Year’s Eve.

Supporters of stricter border security applauded Trump’s initiative to complete as much as possible, although they say it will not be enough when Biden takes office.

As vice president in the Obama era, Biden was charged with working with Central America to find ways to reduce poverty and crime that led to mass migrations to the north.

Its border security plans focus on improving screening at ports of entry, where most illegal drugs enter the United States, along with strengthening investments in surveillance technology and work with Mexico and Central American countries.

The wall was Trump’s signature promise in the 2016 campaign, and his relentless pursuit of it led to clashes that did not thrill many in his own party. A 35-day government shutdown ended in January 2019 without Trump receiving $ 5.7 billion in wall financing he had demanded.

Frontier correspondent Alfredo Corchado and writer Dianne Solis in Dallas contributed to this report.